Retail inventory management services through personal mobile devices

ABSTRACT

A system is disclosed for providing retailer controllable access to consolidated inventory management services through a retail worker&#39;s personal smartphone. The system—operable largely within and through the retailer&#39;s private computing network—comprises data nodes, an enterprise service bus, and a device application. Inventory-related data is kept in the data nodes, with access thereto from suitably provisioned personal mobile devices moderated by the enterprise service bus pursuant to policies and parameters defined by the retailer. Provisioning the personal mobile device involves installation thereon of the device application. The device application launches a user interface for accessing the data nodes through the enterprise service bus, thus enabling the use on the worker&#39;s personal mobile device of retailer-specific, job-related inventory management tools.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/895,538, filed May 16, 2013, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention relates in general to inventory managementsystems, and in particular, to a retail inventory management systemaccessible from personal mobile devices.

BACKGROUND

The management of inventory in retail facilities is a critical businessfunction, the execution and efficiency of which often has substantialimpact on a retailer's financial performance. In a broad sense,inventory management involves the monitoring, control, and review of thehandling, identifying, cataloguing, and counting of items of retailmerchandise. Executed by a team of retail workers and their managers,common inventory management tasks include, for example, unloadingmerchandise delivered to a retail facility, inspecting and recordingdeliveries, stocking and restocking shelves, retrieving merchandise fromstorage to fill a customer order, pricing and labeling merchandiseplaced out on shelves, performing price and inventory checks, andgenerating and reviewing inventory reports, assignments, and staffing.

Inventory in large retail facilities—such as those operated by the wellknown national and international retail chains—can be copious, diverse,and fluid. Handling and attending to inventories at such scale andcomplexity can be daunting, requiring a large well-trained staffequipped with tools that provide them with access to theinventory-related information needed to perform their duties. It wouldnot be uncommon in large retail organization for inventory-assignedworkers (such as, “pickers”, “stockers”, “porters”, “clerks”, and theirmanagers) to constitute a majority among total retail facilityemployees.

It is a current practice within retail facilities to provide each workerthat requires access to inventory-related data with a handheld opticalbar code scanner specifically developed and sold for commercial retailuse. As essentially “niche” devices, these scanners tend to be sold at acomparatively high price, which is borne by the retailer together withthe associated and necessary training costs. Multiplied by each workerin need of such scanner, across each facility operated by the retailer,the overall total cost of implementation can be substantial. There isthus considerable interest in finding a lower cost alternative capableof providing the same, if not better, functionality.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides a system for providingretailer-controllable access to consolidated inventory managementservices from a retail worker's personal mobile device, such as apersonal smartphone. The system—operable largely within and through theretailer's private computing network—comprises a plurality of datanodes, an enterprise service bus, and a device application.Inventory-related data is kept in the data nodes, with access theretofrom suitably provisioned personal mobile devices being moderated by theenterprise service bus pursuant to retailer defined policies andparameters. Provisioning the personal mobile device involvesinstallation thereon of the device application. The device applicationis engineered to launch a user interface for accessing the data nodesthrough the enterprise service bus, and thereby, enabling the use on thepersonal device of retailer-specific, job-related inventory managementtools. The device application is authenticated preferably prior to andin the course of use.

In its preferred embodiment, the system comprises data nodes, theenterprise service bus, and the device application. Each data node hostsinventory-related data and is capable of providing a filtered set of itsinventory-related data in response to an authenticated service request.The enterprise service bus is engineered to receive service requestsfrom personal mobile devices, authenticating them, and passing theauthenticated service request onto a pre-determined one or more of thedata nodes. On the return, the enterprise service bus is also engineeredto acquire the filtered sets of inventory-related data from the datanodes and providing it back to the appropriate personal mobile devices.The device application is installed on personal mobile devices, hostedon the native operating systems thereof. The device application isengineered to provide a user interface for (a) sending service requeststo the enterprise service bus and (b) displaying on the device thefiltered sets of inventory-related data sent back from the data nodesthrough the enterprise service bus in response to the service requests.

By adopting the inventive system, a retailer can reduce the oftensubstantial costs associated with equipping and training inventoryworkers, meeting thusly a principal objective of the invention.

It is another object of the invention to provide means for accessinginventory-related data remotely from a personal mobile device.

It is another object of the invention to provide a system for accessinginventory-related data from a personal mobile device, wherein access ismoderated by an enterprise service bus.

It is another object of the invention to provide retailer-controllableaccess to consolidated inventory management services from a worker'spersonal smartphone.

It is another object of the invention to provide a device applicationcapable of being installed onto a personal smartphone and therebyproviding a user interface for communicating with remoteinventory-related data nodes.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a deviceapplication capable of sending service requests to inventory-relateddata nodes, wherein the service requests include “merchandise-related”,“pick-related”, “worker-related”, and “print-related” services.

For a further understanding of the nature and objects of the invention,reference should be had to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a system for providing access throughthe internet 5 to consolidated inventory management services provided bydata nodes 30 a, 30 b, and 30 c from a personal mobile device 20 throughan enterprise service bus 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention provides a system for providingretailer-controllable access to consolidated inventory managementservices through a retail worker's personal mobile device. The system isoperable largely within and through the retailer's private computingnetwork. As shown in FIG. 1, it comprises a plurality of data nodes 30a, 30 b, and 30 c (i.e., a data center), an enterprise service bus 10,and a device application installed on the personal mobile device 20. Thedata nodes 30, preferably deployed and aggregated within the network,are responsible for hosting the retailer's inventory-related data andproviding individually or collectively a filtered set of theinventory-related data in response to an authenticated service request.

The enterprise service bus 10, preferably operating at the network edge,is configured for moderating the back and forth traffic of servicerequests and responses to and from the personal mobile device 20 and thedata centers 30. The enterprise service bus 10 receives service requestsfrom the personal mobile device 20 and forwards the authenticated oneson to a pre-determined one or more of the data nodes 30. On the return,the enterprise service bus 10 acquires the filtered set ofinventory-related data from the data node(s) and passes it onto theoriginating personal mobile device.

In its native state, the personal mobile communication devices 20 of thetypes used for the invention are unable to meaningfully exchange datawith and through the enterprise service bus 10. Accordingly, anextrinsic device application is installed thereon to provide therequisite additional functionality, such as a user interface withsupporting communication protocols, service request modules, securityand authentication agents, and like instructions and scripts.

In particular, the device application is hosted on the native operatingsystem of the personal mobile communication device 20 and coded toprovide a user interface for (a) sending recognizable service requeststo the enterprise service bus 10 and (b) presenting the responsivefiltered set of inventory-related data sent back from the data centers30 through said enterprise service bus 10.

To reduce retail equipment and training costs, the personal mobiledevice 20 is selected from a group consisting of common consumer grade,mass marketed handheld digital computing devices with integratedinternet connectivity. Enterprise grade, industrial grade, and customengineered mobile devices are unlikely to be personally sought, owned,or used by retail workers outside the scope of their employment, andthus, equally unlikely to afford any relevant economic advantage underthe present invention.

The most commonly owned handheld digital computing device is currentlythe smartphone, having recently been reported to hold greater than 50%of total mobile phone subscriptions in the United States. Smartphonesare thus singularly the most, if not exclusively, preferred device forthe invention. They are apparently widely used and owned, and are oftencarried by or kept close to individual owners at virtually all times atall locations, at their places of employment and outside. Moreover,through frequent prior personal use, retail workers would likely alreadybe familiar with the downloading, installation, and operation of “apps”on their personal smartphones, promoting productivity in use andreducing training costs.

Commercially-available smartphones include, but are not limited to, theApple “iPhone” (available from Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif.), theSamsung “Galaxy” (available from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of Suwon,South Korea), the Motorola “Droid” (available from Motorola MobilityHoldings, LLC, of Libertyville, Ill.), the HTC “One” (available from HTCCorporation of Taoyuan City, Taiwan), and the LG “Optimus” (availablefrom LG Electronics of Seoul, South Korea). Aside from smartphones,other personal mobile devices that can be used for the invention includethe Apple “iPad” and “iPad Mini” tablets, the Google “Nexus” tablets(available from Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.), the Microsoft“Surface” tablets (available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash.), and the Motorola “Xoom” tablets.

Typical components of a smartphone include, for example, a processor, atouch sensitive display, a physical or on-screen keyboard, wirelesscommunications circuits and connectivity (e.g., WiFi, GSM, 3G, 4G, TDMA,CDMA, Bluetooth, etc.), solid state data storage, speakers, and a powersource. For several embodiments of the present invention, an integrateddigital camera is included. In these embodiments, the integrated digitalcamera is used as an optical bar code scanner, driven by the inventivedevice application. Bar code scanning is important, if not critical, inrespect to the performance of picking task, price checking, productinformation and history searching, and other like retail inventoryservice requests wherein potentially relevant data is encoded withinscannable optical indicia.

As is known, commercially-available personal mobile devices 20 are soldto end users with a default set of applications already installed ontothese devices' native operating systems. While these standardapplications are varied and useful, as suggested above, none are knownto provide the specific functionality needed for the invention.Accordingly, specific functionality is introduced though extrinsicsoftware (i.e., an “app”) developed for and installed onto the nativeoperating system of the personal mobile device.

As used herein, the term “native operating system” includes theoperating system provided by the device manufacturer and all updates,versions, patches, upgrades, modifications, additions, and revisionsthereto that are provided, developed, or authorized by the originalmanufacturer. For smartphones, commonly used native operating systemsinclude, for example, the “iOS” operating system (i.e., the propriety OSused for Apple “iPhones”); the “Android” operating system (i.e., aLinux-based operating system developed and licensed primarily by Google,Inc.); and “Windows Mobile” (i.e., a proprietary mobile operating systemdeveloped by Microsoft Corporation.)

As a practical matter, different versions of the deviceapplication—whilst providing to the user substantially similarfunctionality—will be developed for each mobile operating systemtargeted by the retailer for support. Thus, for example, an “iPhone”compatible version of the device application will be provided to supportretail workers with Apple smartphones; an “Android” compatible version,for workers with “Android”-based phones; and a “Windows Mobile” version,for those with “Windows”-based phones.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the device application is“wrapped” in a device agnostic container that would essentially allow asingle version of the device application to work on virtually any devicewith a mobile browser, often relying upon open HTML standards, openapplication interfaces, and/or cloud computing technologies. Web-based,device agnostic mobile apps, platforms approaches, and the developmentthereof, are known in the art.

The principal function of the device application is to use the extantresources within, and functionality of, the personal mobile device toprovide a user interface capable of serving as a front end portal intothe retailer's data center. The worker, though the user interface, isprovided with the means to issue predefined service requests and receiveback responsive data. The service requests are predefined by theretailer to encompass commonly requested tasks encountered in the courseof performing worker responsibilities. Each service request is enabledthrough programming, data, codes, and algorithms, the relevant output ofwhich is transmitted to the enterprise service bus 10 for furtherprocessing.

The enterprise service bus 10 provides a consolidated avenue for data tobe exchanged, pursuant to retailer-defined rules and policies, betweenthe data centers on one side and personal mobile devices on the other.At the outset, processing at the enterprise service bus involves dataauthentication and routing. The enterprise service bus is preferablydeployed securely through the use of SOA network appliances and/ormiddleware capable of providing XML-based or JSON-based web services,such as the “WebSphere DataPower” SOA appliance commercially availablefrom IBM Corporation (Armonk, N.Y.), or the Oracle “Fusion Middleware11g” family of products commercially available from Oracle Corporation(Redwood City, Calif.).

In addition to routing and authentication, the enterprise service bus 10is provided with means for mediating and accommodating the differentdata formats used by potentially different personal mobile deviceplatforms and potentially different data node platforms. This can beaccomplished by converting, transforming, or translating betweenendpoint data formats, and/or by enforcing policies, and/or by adoptinga unified middleware data format. Other approaches will be known tothose skilled in the art.

Details of the operation and design of the enterprise service bus 10 andalternatives thereto can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. App. Pub.No 2011/0125821, filed by W. A. Roshem on Nov. 24, 2009; U.S. Pat. No.8,156,140, issued to W. A. Roshem et al. on Apr. 10, 2012; U.S. Pat. No.8,255,375, issued to A. Rangarajan et al. on Aug. 28, 2012; U.S. Pat.No. 8,112,434, issued to W. R. Patten, Jr. et al. on Feb. 7, 2012; andU.S. Pat. No. 8,265,970, issued to P. M. Conroy et al. on Sep. 11, 2012.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the functionality of theenterprise service bus is divided into “external” and “internal”components. The external service bus component 12 executes outside aninternal firewall of the retailer's computing network. The internalservice bus component 14 executes inside the firewall. Preferably,routing and data exchange are executed at both the external and internalenterprise service buses 12 and 14 in compliance with a securecommunications protocol (e.g., HTTPS). The internal enterprise servicebus should also be compliant with simple object access protocol (i.e.,SOAP).

The external service bus component 12 serves essentially as the gatewayfor worker-originated service requests arriving through the internetfrom the worker personal mobile device. Outside the firewall, theexternal service bus component is primarily responsible forauthenticating the device application and the personal mobile devicebeing utilized. This authentication is performed essentially to ensurethat application and device are adequately compliant with the relevantsecurity and technical policies promulgated by the retailer for theinventive system. In the currently preferred embodiment, this isaccomplished through and in combination with mobile security servicesprovided by external agencies such as, for example, the mobile securityservice commercially offered by AirWatch, LLC (Atlanta, Ga.). Extrinsicinformation produced in the course of receiving such service will becalled by, and relied upon, by the external enterprise service bus. Onceauthenticated, the service request is then allowed into retailer'snetwork, past the firewall, for further processing by the internalservice bus, thereby providing exposure to the enterprise services madeavailable at the data nodes.

The internal service bus component 14 is responsible for maintainingmaps, registries, tables, directories, addresses and the like for eachof the data nodes in the data center that are to be called upon inresponse to worker service requests. Such information is used by theinternal service bus component to route authentication service requestsand store service requests. In this regard, the identity of each workerauthorized to use the inventive service is preferably recorded at onedata node (e.g., a retail facility database). Prior to providing accessto that worker to other data nodes (e.g., product databases at a remotecentrally-located “home office”), authentication of that worker isrequired.

Each of the data nodes 30 a, 30 b, and 30 c can comprise one or moredata storage devices capable of recoding digital information from amedium (e.g., magnetic, optical, semiconductor, etc.). For small tomedium-sized retailers, the data nodes can utilize storage withcomparatively modest capacity. For large global retailers, the datastorage will require greater capacity and bandwidth, and thus, mayemploy several networked and attached electronic data storagecomponents, these being deployed at an enterprise-scale and may include,for example, arrays of data servers and file servers; SAS and NASstorage facilities; raid storage systems; data backup, archiving, andredundancy facilities; and data management and load balancing agents.

For large enterprises, variation is expected in respect of theprotocols, architecture, specifications, processes, operations, andhardware used at each of the data nodes. The issues of interoperabilityoften associated with such complex and heterogeneous landscapes areresolved largely through the enterprise service bus 10.

The data nodes 30—as is true also for the enterprise service bus 10—aredeployed within the retailer's computer network. This network itself cancomprise a plurality of interconnected computers and terminals, servers,hubs, routers, switches, network security devices, network managementdevices, wireless nodes and access points, load balancers, and relatedsoftware.

In respect of functionality, the data nodes 30 are individually andcollectively responsible for the storage and retrieval ofinventory-related data. In addition to reading and writing data, otherintegral and/or related functions of the data nodes include organizing,structuring, shaping, and linking data; access management andauthentication; data integrity, backup, and security; data searching andreporting; and data processing and computational analysis. Suchfunctionality can be provided intrinsically or extrinsically throughsoftware, hardware, or combinations thereof.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, the inventory-related data ineach of the data nodes 30 is effected through programming within thesystem that provides a data access layer, a business logic/librarylayer, and a service bus layer. The data access layer manages access tothe inventory-related data The business logic/library layer containsbusiness logic and libraries used for processing and maintaining theintegrity of the inventory-related data. The service bus layer exposes,in association with the data access layer and the business logic/librarylayer, predefined selections of the business logic and libraries to theenterprise service bus. In embodiments wherein the enterprise servicebus is divided into internal and external functionalities, the servicebus layer preferably exposes these selections to the latter, i.e., theexternal service bus component 12.

The specific type of service requests encompassed by the presentinvention is subject to variation. Retailers differ widely in theirmerchandise, sales and marketing strategies, customer base,organizational structure, operating procedures, and in several otherrespects. The records that are kept, and the manner and form in whichthey are kept will reflect this variation. Regardless, for purposes ofthe present invention, certain broad classes of service requests thathave pertinence to inventory management in the retail industry ingeneral can be defined. These classes of service requests, encompassedwithin the scope of the invention, include: Merchandise-related servicerequests, worker-related service requests, pick-related servicerequests, and print-related service requests.

The term “merchandise-related service requests” as used hereinencompasses any service that call for the creation, editing, retrieval,and processing of records, data, files, and information kept in thenormal course of business with respect to items of merchandise sold orotherwise handled by the retailer. Such records would include, but isnot limited to, product information (e.g., brand, weight, dimensions,volume, class of goods, manufacturer, product codes, productidentification numbers, product images, storage requirements, color andsize) and sales information (e.g., price, cost, sales history, vendors,suppliers, distributors, quantity and location in inventory, quantityand location on shelves, stocking information, and marketing andpromotional data). Examples of services that call upon such recordswould include, for example, retrieving product information, retrieving aproduct's location within a store; looking up an alternative item ofmerchandise; placing an order for an out-of-stock item; and updating the“on hand” quantity of or shelf capacity for an item of merchandise,which may trigger a corresponding worker-related service requesttherefor.

The term “worker-related service requests” as used herein encompassesany service that calls for or involve the creation, editing, retrieval,and processing of worker records, data, information, files, schedules,and assignments. Representative worker-related service requests wouldinclude, but is not limited to, the reassignment of workers to differentdepartments or retail locations, the viewing of current workerassignments and tasks, the viewing of worker schedules, the assignmentof a specific task (e.g., restocking a particular item at a particularlocation) to a specific worker (e.g., by name, identification number,skill, or availability); and approving or rejecting worker assignmentand/or scheduling requests.

The term “pick-related service requests” as used herein encompasses anyservices that call for the creation, editing, monitoring, and deletionof retail pick tasks. As is well known in retail industry, “picking”involves the retrieval and transport of items of merchandise from oneretail location (e.g., a warehouse location, backroom storage, receivingdock, etc.) to another location (e.g., an order fulfillment facility,store shelves, a warehouse location, etc.). When tasked as such, anassigned picker travels to and between the locations, searches foritems, retrieves them, and directs them towards further downstreamsorting, shipping, in-take, and/or shelving processes.

The term “print-related service requests” as used herein encompasses anyservice that call for the production of a report, hardcopy, printout ofinformation culled from the data nodes through the inventive system andprinted on a devices mapped at, within, or available to the data nodes.The specific principal service encompassed under this category is theprinting for re-labeling of shelf labels which—as is well known—is acommon and frequent daily retail task.

In performing a service request, it will be appreciated that theinventive system may call upon more than one data node. For example, inperforming a request to print a new shelf label, information may beextracted from a data node containing merchandise-information, a datanode containing sales information, a data node containing applicationauthentication information, and a data node containing printer mappinginformation. As indicated above, the composition and orchestration ofsuch processes will largely be handled by the enterprise service bus.

Although several embodiments of the invention are disclosed herein,those skilled in the art having the benefits of this disclosure caneffect modifications thereto. These modifications are to be construed asencompassed within the scope of the present invention as set forth inthe appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system providing access to consolidatedinventory management services through a personal mobile device, thesystem comprising: a plurality of data nodes, each data node hostinginventory-related data, each capable of providing a filtered set of itsinventory-related data in response to an authenticated service request;an enterprise service bus comprising an external service bus componentexecuting outside an internal firewall of a retailer-operated computingnetwork, and an internal service bus component executing inside saidinternal firewall and comprising maps and registries; wherein theexternal service bus is configured to receive a service request fromsaid personal mobile device, access a set of retailer definedauthentication rules and apply the authentication rules inauthenticating the service request, and enabling access to a privatenetwork based on the authentication; wherein the internal service bus isconfigured to access a set of retailer defined routing rules, and applythe routing rules in determining, based on the registries and addressesfor the plurality of data nodes, a pre-determined one or more of theplurality of data nodes to which the service request is to be forwardedand providing the authenticated service request to the pre-determinedone or more of said data nodes in accordance with the routing rules, theenterprise service bus further capable of acquiring said filtered set ofinventory-related data and providing it to said personal mobile device;and a device application installed on the personal mobile device,wherein the device application is hosted on a native operating system ofthe personal mobile device, wherein product identification informationis communicated to one or more data nodes in acquiring relevantinformation corresponding to the service request, and is executable by auser to provide a user interface for (a) sending said service request tothe enterprise service bus and (b) presenting the filtered set ofinventory-related data sent back through said enterprise service bus tosaid device in response to said service request.
 2. The system of claim1, wherein the device application is wrapped in a device-agnosticcontainer installed on the native operating system of the personalmobile device.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein: said personal mobiledevice comprises an integrated digital camera, and said deviceapplication is an app executed on the personal mobile device andconfigured to use said integrated digital camera as an optical bar codescanner.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the smartphone app is aninternet app capable of communicating with said enterprise service busthrough secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS).
 5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said enterprise service bus comprises: an externalservice bus component executing outside an internal firewall of aretailer-operated computing network; and an internal service buscomponent executing inside said internal firewall.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the inventory-related data in each of said data nodesis supported through programming providing: a data access layer formanaging access to said inventory-related data; a business logic/librarylayer containing business logic and libraries used for processing andmaintaining integrity of said inventory-related data; and a service buslayer exposing, in association with said data access layer and saidbusiness logic/library layer, predefined selections of said businesslogic and libraries to said enterprise service bus.
 7. The system ofclaim 6, wherein said enterprise service bus comprises: an externalservice bus component executing outside an internal firewall ofretailer-operated computing network; and an internal service buscomponent executing inside said internal firewall.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the service bus layer exposes said predefinedselections of said business logic and libraries to the external servicebus component of said enterprise service bus.
 9. The system of claim 7,wherein said external service bus component performs an authenticationprocedure to authenticate a device application originating a servicerequest.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein said authenticationprocedure calls and relies upon extrinsic third party information. 11.The system of claim 8, wherein: said personal mobile device is asmartphone with an integrated digital camera, and said deviceapplication is a smartphone app capable of using said integrated digitalcamera as an optical bar code scanner.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein the smartphone app is an internet app capable of communicatingwith said enterprise service bus through secure hypertext transferprotocol (HTTPS).
 13. The system of claim 3, wherein said deviceapplication is capable of sending a plurality of predefinedinventory-related service requests to said enterprise service bus, saidplurality including: (a) a merchandise-related service request; and (b)a pick-related service request.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein saidplurality of predefined inventory-related service requests furtherincludes: (c) a worker-related service request; and (d) a print-relatedservice request.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein said deviceapplication is capable of sending a plurality of predefinedinventory-related service requests to said enterprise service bus, saidplurality including: (a) a merchandise-related service request; and (b)a pick-related service request.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein saidplurality of predefined inventory-related service requests furtherincludes: (c) a worker-related service request; and (d) a print-relatedservice request.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein the internal servicebus utilizes the maps, directories and the addresses by the internalservice bus component to route the authenticated service request. 18.The system of claim 6, wherein the internal service bus component isexecuting inside said internal firewall and comprising maps andregistries that are accessed to identify the pre-determined one or moreof said data nodes and define the routing of the authentication servicerequests wherein the personal mobile device comprises an integrateddigital camera with the device application using data captured by thedigital camera to obtain product identifying information that iscommunicated through the internal service bus to the one or more datanodes in acquiring relevant information corresponding to the servicerequest.
 19. A method of providing access to consolidated inventorymanagement services through a personal mobile device, comprising:receiving, through an external service bus of an enterprise service bus,a service request from a personal mobile device, wherein the enterpriseservice bus comprises: the external service bus component executingoutside an internal firewall of a retailer-operated computing network,and an internal service bus component executing inside said internalfirewall and comprising maps and registries, wherein the personal mobiledevice implements a device application installed and hosted on a nativeoperating system of the personal mobile device, wherein the deviceapplication is executable by a user to provide a user interface for (a)sending said service request to the enterprise service bus and (b)presenting the filtered set of inventory-related data sent back throughsaid enterprise service bus to said device in response to said servicerequest; accessing a set of retailer defined authentication rules andapplying the authentication rules in authenticating the service request,and enabling access to a private network based on the authentication;accessing, by the internal service bus, a set of retailer definedrouting rules, and applying the routing rules in determining, based onregistries and addresses for a plurality of data nodes, a pre-determinedone or more of the plurality of data nodes to which the service requestis to be forwarded and providing the authenticated service request tothe pre-determined one or more of said data nodes in accordance with therouting rules, wherein each of the plurality of data nodes hostsinventory-related data, and each is configured to provide a filtered setof its inventory-related data in response to an authenticated servicerequest; and acquiring, through the enterprise service bus and from thepre-determined one or more of said data nodes, said filtered set ofinventory-related data and providing it to said personal mobile device.